On the go and no time to finish that story right now? Your News is the place for you to save content to read later from any device. Register with us and content you save will appear here so you can access them to read later.

The Te Ao Marama statistics showed 257,500 Maori adults were able to speak more than a few words or phrases in te reo compared with 153,500 in 2001.

Life expectancy for Maori men at 72.77 years in 2012 and 76.49 for females had also increased. The snapshot showed overall life satisfaction among Maori was high with 89 per cent saying they were happy.

But it found unemployment rates (12.8 per cent in 2013) that were more than double that of non-Maori (6.2 per cent in 2013).

Tertiary education participation was falling and Maori median weekly income ($486 in June 2013) continued to lag behind others on $575.

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples this was "a major area of inequality between Maori and the rest of New Zealand".

He said the Government had invested into initiatives such as cadetships and apprenticeships and educational initiatives. "We need to be working on all fronts to turn these statistics around," he said.